Christmas getaway: roads and airports set for busiest day

Millions of people are taking to the roads today on what is expected to be the
busiest day of the Christmas getaway.

Photo: PA

9:01AM GMT 23 Dec 2011

Airports and ports were also full of people travelling to spend the festive period overseas.

A spokesman for the AA said up to 18 million cars would be on the roads over the 24-hour period from last night to this evening.

''There will be a delayed rush hour today,'' he said. ''Rush hour won't start until 10am as people either go off to spend Christmas away from home or do Christmas shopping, so there will be a mixture of people travelling long and short distances.''

Getaway traffic is likely to be heavy on major routes, including the M1 in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, the M4 between London and Newbury in Berkshire, the M25 around London, and the M4 and M5 in the West Country.

The Highways Agency reported few problems today. There are delays on the A27 westbound entry slip road from the A2030 near Portsmouth due to a lorry fire, and an accident has closed one lane of the A56 northbound in Lancashire.

It said 19 sets of roadworks and lane restrictions were removed by 6am in order to ease congestion, and will not be put back until the new year.

A spokewoman for Gatwick Airport said today is expected to be its busiest day with 100,000 passengers travelling through.

Of these 58,000 were departing the UK, with a total of 1.3 million passengers going through the airport during the Christmas period.

There were also big crowds at Heathrow Airport, with today expected to see the most arrivals flying in, and 35,000 scheduled to fly into Terminal 5 alone.

Some train services were delayed today, with disruption reported between Gloucester and Newport in South Wales due to signalling problems, and also between Liverpool Lime Street via Runcorn or Warrington.

Unlike last year when heavy snowfall caused travel chaos, the weather is unlikely to cause any problems, with mild temperatures expected today over the whole of the UK.

A Heathrow Airport spokeswoman confirmed that the total number of passengers passing through today was around 205,700, with the amount flying into the airport around 91,100.

Another 158,400 are expected to depart from and arrive at the airport tomorrow.

Helping travellers get into the Christmas spirit were helpers dressed as elves who were offering a present-wrapping service for Virgin Atlantic passengers.

Passengers using Heathrow over the festive period are expected to take 6,000 tonnes of luggage each day - equivalent to the weight of 20 jumbo jets.

Its most popular destinations this Christmas are New York, Dubai, Dublin, Amsterdam and Paris.

A total of 4.25 million Britons were expected to be travelling overseas between December 16 and January 3, compared with just under four million for the festive period in 2010/11.

This year, around 1.7 million festive travellers will be leaving from Heathrow airport, 425,000 from Stansted, 750,000 from Gatwick and 210,000 from Luton.

Also, 340,000 will be departing from Manchester airport, 165,000 from Birmingham and 120,000 from Glasgow, while many thousands will be crossing the English Channel or travelling through the Channel Tunnel.

Meanwhile, a recent AA/Populus survey of 16,647 AA members found that 68% were planning to stay at home this Christmas, with people in north east England (78%) most likely to stay put and Londoners (60%) least likely to.

More than a quarter (26%) said they would be hitting the road to spend Christmas away from home, with 10% racking up more than 100 miles.

The Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc) said around 20 million rail journeys are expected to be made over the festive period.

It said the number of replacement buses this year has halved compared with last Christmas, with 54,000 more trains running this year.

As much as £109 million of work is being done on the rail network over Christmas and the new year, with projects including work at Birmingham New Street station and at Reading station in Berkshire, it added.

Atoc spokesman Edward Welsh said: "Whether visiting family and friends, buying some last-minute stocking fillers or dropping in on the sales, millions of people are voting with their feet and their wallets to travel by train to help them make the most of the festive season.

"We want to help people have a great break over Christmas and New Year by running a smooth and efficient rail service, with staff at stations and on trains committed to assisting and supporting passengers, particularly if they are not regular rail users."